Fast-food workers protest, demand $15 hourly

Workers walked off the job Wednesday at fast food restaurants in Warren and St. Clair Shores, joining hundreds of others in protests around metro Detroit to demand a $15 hourly wage and the right to unionize without retaliation.

At the McDonald’s on Van Dyke at Nine Mile Road, employees were among the approximately 50 people who began protesting at about 6 a.m. At 10 a.m., about 200 people chanted “Hey hey, ho ho, corporate greed has got to go” outside the Taco Bell at Eight Mile and Ryan roads while carrying signs that read: “We are worth more, strike for 15.”

Most of the workers at that restaurant receive $7.40 an hour and are kept at 29 hours or much less, said crew trainer Shanise Stitt, an employee for five years.

“You can barely pay rent and bills. It’s hard to live off that,” said Stitt, who said a 22-cent raise in May nudged her hourly wage to $8.09. The 27-year-old mother of three said she was recently evicted from her home because she fell behind on rent payments.

Stitt said she and her co-workers are angry and frustrated that fast food corporations have billions of dollars in revenue but don’t pay more to workers inside the restaurants.

“I don’t think that is right,” she said. “They have more than enough to pay employees to provide for their families.”

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama called for an increase in the minimum wage to at least $9 per hour.

The minimum wage in Michigan is $7.40.

The boisterous and enthusiastic crowd included community supporters including clergy, members of Good Jobs Now, the United Food and Commercial Workers union and SEIU Healthcare Michigan.

“There’s no reason why CEO’s at McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King are making multimillion dollars but yet paying their workers $7.40 without any insurance or any benefits, and most of the time working them part-time,” said Marge Robinson, a registered nurse who wore a Good Jobs Now T-shirt to show her support. “These workers have had enough. They want to stand up.”

Robinson believes significant raises could help boost the economy and help turn around Detroit.

“What these employers are doing is holding down wages for everybody,” she added.

Protesters said they are optimistic their message to the corporations will lead to what some might describe as super-sized percentage increases in pay.

Pastor W.J. Rideout III, religious and community liaison at Good Jobs Now, believes support for minimum-wage workers at restaurants will grow throughout the area and beyond, and that more will be willing to speak up.

“It has sparked a fire in the interest of many fast-food workers,” he said.

Similar protests were held in Detroit in May. But the strikes widened Wednesday, as approximately 400 workers at 89 sites in metro Detroit and Flint planned to walk off their jobs, joined by supporters. A Checkers restaurant in Lincoln Park remained closed Wednesday morning after employees walked off the job late Tuesday, and a protest also resulted in the temporary closure of a McDonald’s in Southfield.

A spokeswoman for the protests said a manager of a McDonald’s in Harper Woods threatened workers there with physical harm if they stepped outside to join the protests.

The protests are part of an unprecedented week of strikes planned in major cities across the U.S., including New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Milwaukee involving fast-food workers.

Jobs in the service sector are the fastest growing but among the lowest paid.

The 1-hour protest at the Taco Bell on Eight Mile at Ryan Road included 10 employees, including five who otherwise would have taken and prepared customers’ orders at that time.

“We all should stick together, not only for ourselves but our kids,” said Taco Bell manager Treaka McCloud, 34.

Co-worker Anthony Biggs stood a few feet from an entrance and watched but did not participate, saying he had to think about his wife and four children.

“I don’t want to be the one laid off because I walked in a picket line,” he said. “I don’t want to take that risk.”

Biggs said he loves his job and working with people since starting work there in 2006 and, at $8.50 an hour, earns about $300 week. After work and on his days off, he operates a lawn service. He plans on attending Wayne County Community College District in mid-August to study business administration.

None of the Warren restaurants impacted by Wednesday’s strikes closed for business.

The red and white signs carried by protestors, including ones that read, “Fight for 15,” and the stickers worn by some, had labels showing they were made by unionized printing shops.